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Submarines
Guest Chris Woods (also appeared on Art) Topic Word Origin Sub - under, marine - sea, 'nuff said, says Toren. Phobia(s) Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces and thalassaphobia is the fear of the sea, but there was no specific fear of submarines. Pop Quiz Rainlocker: shower Emergency blow: emergency maneuvre to bring the submarine to the surface. History 1775 had the earliest known submarine, the Turtle, a two-man pedal-powered vessel, looking like a giant acorn, with a giant auger, some gunpowder and a timing device. The auger was intended to be used against enemy (British - this was in Revolutionary times) ships, drilling into their hulls in order to place the gunpowder in there and then blow them up. Unfortunately the hulls were coated in Copper, so the plan failed, but the two guys in the submarine survived (though were probably suffering CO2 poisoning given how small the vessel was. Chris had seen a PBS documentary with a recreation of the device, which showed just how amazingly hard it was to drive, let alone not sink or attach bombs to enemy ships. During the Civil War, the Hunley was a Confederate 3-4 man submarine, the length of a city bus with a long stick on the front with a stick of dynamite attached. The idea was to come up to a ship, hold the dynamite up against its hull and set it off. These guys didn't survive, just as half of the test crew had not. They did manage to sink two ships. In New York City at the same time, a German called Julius Cruel (sp?) tried taking a similar submarine decide to the North who blew him off (it was seen as ungentlemanly), and so he instead got private backing to turn it into a pearl harvesting vessel in Central America. In 1863, the French "Plunger" (diver) was the first submarine not relying on human power, it used compressed air at 180psi to get around. The German submarines were very good during WWI and were responsible for the sinking of the Lusitania, a civilian vessel, which Chris thought was one of the causes of WWI itself. The typical rules of seafaring war were that the attacking vessel would give non-military vessels the opportunity to disembark "to a place of safety" before sinking it, but the Germans didn't bother to do this a few times, so the English started arming their civilian vessels, which effectively turned them into military targets anyway. As soon as a submarine would surface to tell the crew to disembark, they'd be fired upon by the "civilian" vessel. These subs were diesel and required air to work and ran on batteries while underwater, so they'd actually only go underwater entirely when attacking or sneaking around. In WWII, "der Snorkel" (?) was invented, permitting air to allow the diesel engines to be run while underwater to charge the batteries. Submarine development between the World Wars clearly continued, despite German being forbidden from doing so. They were also forbidden from attempting to conquer Europe again or arming the Spaniards, so it's clear not all of its post-WWI constraints were adhered to. Submarines are always referred to as "boats", while surface-going vessels are always "ships" (above a certain size, skiff perhaps). Badassoftheweek.com had a German WWI captain, Lothar von Arnold, went out to sea, used up all his torpedos, and then because he still had plenty of fuel, he went through all the ammunition for the deck guns, and then went through all of his crew's small arms before finally returning. He's the most successful submarine commander based on total tonnage sunk - to this day (2014) the nearest competitor for this title has only sunk half what he did: 194 ships, 454,000 tons of equipment and supplies (and two icebergs, according to Toren). Toren and Chris visited a Russian Foxtrot sub (diesel electric from the 1970s), docked in New Westminster. PSA: if you go in a sub, watch your head. The doors are rounded and you're meant to kind of swing through them but they take a bit of getting used to. Pacific War: USS Indianapolis disaster (callback to Sharks episode), in which a US Cruiser (which had shipped several components of Little Boy to Tinia (?) Island) was hit and sunk (taking 12 minutes) by a Japanese I58 submarine. On that dark and stormy night, the ship should have been zigzagging to avoid being followed easily while it returned to the Phillipines, but didn't, having been given bad intelligence on the presence of Japanese subs in the area, and the sub had been out at sea for ages and hadn't fired on anything, so it was fully armed. Of the 900 crew, 600 made it to the water, but only 300 survived due to attacks by sharks overnight while they awaited rescue. There were investigations afterwards to determine whether captain McVey had been negligent and, despite being supported by his crew, he was found guilty and eventually took his own life over his feelings of guilt. Interval Music “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin In The News The Kursk (Oscar class sub - enormous! Several times the length of 747s). DEA spotting cocaine-carrying scratch-made (made from scratch) submarines, one which could carry 3-4 tons of cocaine, and one which could carry up to 12 tons. Previously News Japanese subs which could fling planes into the air with slingshots. Japanese subs that crossed the Atlantic to fling diseased rats and mosquitos at Americans. Lesser of Two Evils Dying in a submarine or being hit by a Near-Earth object like a meteorite Pop Culture The Hunt For Red October used a real submarine (Typhoon class) and graphically added the famous (fictional) "Caterpillar drive". Crimson Tide was technically (for a sub nerd) dreadful, but Kevin insisted that some of the monologues (particularly Denzel Washington's) were very good. The film lacked plausibility for various elements such as Gene Hackman going nuts without being removed immediately, the fact he had a dog on board, let alone anything else. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea had the Nautilus Das Boot, "5 hours" (Director's Cut was actually 3 hours, 19 minutes) of very realistic, gritty and claustrophobic drama. Favorite Moments Cats and dog impressions during silent running (Joe miaowing in the background). Puns "Inalienable human rights/Reichs" - really needs sorting out. Callbacks Followups Discussed To be discussed Category:Episodes Category:Season 2